(Slide 1) When my mom was here last weekend, she related a story that happened probably not long before I was born and that took place one Wednesday night at the church she and dad attended then.
It seems that there was a visitor that particular Wednesday night who was willing to sing a solo. So, one of mom’s dear friends, willingly played the piano for her.
Mom indicated that the woman sang in one of those melodious opera voices… off key. She did the trills and the vocal runs with flourish… off key.
Dutifully, her friend played with commitment and when the soloist performed her vocal runs, Dorothy dutifully went up and down the keyboard as well.
Finally, the guest singer said, ‘I think that I’ll just hum…’ With that Dorothy quickly stopped playing, walked off the platform, and sat down. The audience, mom said, was having difficulty containing themselves during this time of worship.
Now, in line with this wonderful story, I again share some of those famous bulletin bloopers.
(Slide 2) Keeping in mind our musical story, here is an interesting one:
(2A) The "Over 60’s Choir" will be disbanded for the summer with thanks.
(2B) Next Sunday Mrs. Vinson will be soloist for the morning service. The pastor will then speak on "It’s a Terrible Experience."
(Slide 3) Sometimes the placement of the musical aspect of worship with either church events or something relating to the pastor can provide us with quite a chuckle. For example,
(3A) The preacher will preach his farewell massage, after which the choir will sing, "Break Forth With Joy".
(3B) The service will close with, "Little Drops of Water." One of the ladies will start quietly and the rest of the congregation will join in.
(Slide 4) Finally, here are two other jewels of joy…
(4A) Miss Charlene Mason sang, "I Will Not Pass This Way Again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
(4B) At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What is hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.
(Slide 5) This morning is the second of our three part series ‘The Church That You and God have Always Wanted.’
(Slide 6) Last week, we studied Ephesians 2:10, ‘For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.’
We then noted two key statements in this verse as it relates to our mission and purpose as a church:
(6A) The first statement is the foundational statement, ‘He has created us anew in Christ Jesus.’
(6B) The second statement stands on the first one, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. It is an operational statement.
This led us to look at our current mission statement, ‘a fully following, faithfully functioning church.’ We addressed the first half of this mission statement last week, the ‘fully following part.’
Today, we address the second half, the ‘faithfully functioning’ part. Now before we look at our main text I want to have us view again the short clip that was shown last week. (Slide 7) Clip, ‘Who Are We?’ from sermonspice.com was shown.
I asked us last week to reflect on the following questions that the video clip raised:
(Slide 8) Who are we?
What is our assignment?
Where is God at work right now?
What are we good at?
What’s the next step?
We addressed the second question last week, ‘What is our assignment?’ And we determined, using the categories of Gordon MacDonald that we needed to move from (Slide 9) being a spectator to seeker to a follower to a kingdom builder and that God’s desire is that the First Church of God is to be kingdom builders. But how do we do move from being a spectator to a kingdom builder?
We are given several key answers to that question in our main text that has been read this morning. Paul begins chapter 4 with a plea to the Ephesian believers to (Slide 10) ‘live a life worthy of your calling,’ to be humble and gentle,’ ‘to be patient with each other,’ and ‘be united in the Holy Spirit.’
The first way then, we do church in the right way is expressed by (Slide 11) being united in the Holy Spirit and thus honoring the call of God to spiritual maturity that is evidenced by humility, gentleness, and patience toward one another.
I believe in the church. I love the church. I believe in this church! I believe in you! I love you! So does the Lord!
But ‘doing church’ is more than a 9:30 Sunday morning date on our calendar. It is about our attachments and support of a group of people that we should and must care about.
David Ausburger has written: (Slide 12)
‘The church is an alternative community-an alternative to human communities that live by coercion, competition, and collective self-interest. It seeks to be a community of disciples (shall we say ‘kingdom builders’?) obeying the particular ways of God that are revealed in Jesus… Nothing is real until it is embodied. The community of faith must be a community of deeds.’ Families are important communities, and so are the workplace, schools, and our friendship networks. (Parenthetical comment is mine)
But if we are going to live the ways of Jesus, we need to be attached to and involved in the church. This is the place, no, this is the group of people, where we need to go when the chips are down and we need help to believe and have faith!
And if we say we are not just spectators or seekers, but followers and kingdom builders, we need to be people of the deeds and actions listed in these opening verses. Moving down to verse 4 we read, ‘we are all one body, we have the same Spirit, and we have been called to the same glorious future.’
Let me re-read that last paragraph again. ‘If we say we are not just spectators or seekers, but followers and kingdom builders, we need to be people of the deeds and actions listed in these opening verses because, ‘we are all one body, we have the same Spirit, and we have been called to the same glorious future.’
Paul then goes onto say in verses 5 and 6, ‘There is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and there is only one God and Father, who is over us all and in us all and living through us all.’
What Paul is saying is that because of what God has done for us through Christ we need to be together, on the same page, going in the same direction, united in Christ. This is one of the ways that we ‘faithfully function.’ (Slide 13)
Now in verse 7 we read, ‘However, he has given each one of us a special gift according to the generosity of Christ.’ (14A) It is a special gift… it is an ability, a God given ability, it is an assignment, a place of service.
Paul clarifies this gift in verse 11, (14B) ‘He is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ…’
(14C) A second way we ‘faithfully function’ requires us to discover and accept our place of service in the church so that we can be enabled and empowered to do what the Lord has called us to do and to be who God called us to be – not the church down the street or across town but church that He has created us to be.
As a congregation within the Church of God, we believe that when you are saved, born again, you are member of the church and that becoming a member of the church includes discovering and accepting one’s place of service and doing it faithfully and for the Lord. My role is to serve you and help you find your place of service and help you do it well. This is how we fully function as a church.
There is nothing more exciting to see than a sports team playing together as a team. There is nothing worse than seeing a team fight one another and fall apart. They have lost their focus on the game and on their commitment to play to win.
Our focus as a church must be on… the Lord and His mission. It cannot be on me or anyone else. It cannot be on the past or the present or the future. When we get our eyes off of the Lord and onto everything but Jesus, we are going to have problems. When we believe that this person or that position or that program is our salvation, we are focusing on the wrong thing.
Now people, positions, and programs do matter… but they are not quick fixes that so often people think they are. We can have the best programs, the best people, and the best church organization in the world but if there is not a faithfulness to serving and a joyful willingness to serve faithfully it does not matter.
We cannot be all things to all people. That is a hard thing for me to accept but some times the best thing that I can do for someone is to say ‘no’ or ‘let me direct you to contact so-and-so.’
But there is another point that Paul makes that needs to be heard this morning because it helps us make sense of our places of ministry and it is the direction that I believe that the Lord wants us to go so that we don’t get discouraged and give up. (And that is not what I want us to do this morning! I want us to be encouraged and inspired by the Holy Spirit to see with eyes of faith what God wants to do in us and through our church!)
Let’s look at verse 13, (15) ‘until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.’
Notice the highlighted words on the screen, (15A) ‘unity, mature, full grown.’ These are the goals of our faithful service – being together in Christ, being mature in our faith which impacts our relationships and every aspect of our life, and being full grown which I believe is best defined by having the qualities we call the Fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22 and 23, ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.’
So, (16) what is our assignment?
to fully follow and to faithfully function… so that… we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.’
(17) To put in another way, our assignment; our purpose is to help others move from… being a spectator (17A) to becoming a kingdom builder.
This involves evangelism, worship, discipleship, fellowship, and service, five things that we have talked about over the past six and one half years. It is about doing ministry better and well. It is about committing ourselves to the ministry of this church.
I have talked about the importance of serving in the community in my time here as your pastor. That is still important, but what is also important is the need for commitment to the ministries of this church which brings me back to the (18) church health chart and the small group survey in your bulletin.
As you have time after the service and through the week, please fill out the survey (you don’t have to put your name on it) and get it back. In helping ourselves and others moving from being a spectator to becoming a kingdom builder, we need to develop a network of care through small groups because I see a need for it among us. Having a network of care in place will help us empower one another to move forward because such a network will help us encourage and be encouraged in our faith and life.
Next week we are going to address some of the barriers that will cause us problems in becoming a church of kingdom builders and we are going to be addressing these questions, (19) ‘What are we good at? Who are we? ‘What is the next step?’
I want to conclude with some thoughts that I recently read in a book by the late Mike Yaconelli entitled, Messy Spirituality: God’s Annoying Love for Imperfect People, and then give you a couple of questions to consider this day and week as it relates to an inner barrier that can and does keep us from not just fully following but also faithfully functioning as well.
Yaconelli wrote, ‘spiritual growth does not happen by running faster. What keeps many of us from growing is not sin but speed… Spiritual growth happens when we slow our activity down… Sin does not always drive us to drink; more often it drives us to exhaustion. Tiredness is equally as debilitating as drunkenness. Burnout is slang for an inner tiredness, a fatigue of our souls. Jesus came to forgive us all of our sins, including the sin of busyness. The problem with growth in the modern church is not the slowness of growth but the rushing of growth…Rest is the ultimate humiliation because in order to rest, we must admit we are not necessary, that the world can get along without us, that God’s work does not depend on us. Once we understand how unnecessary we are, only then might we find the right reasons to say yes. Only then might we find the right reasons to be with Jesus instead of working for him.’
(20) Question 1: What is it that is driving you into exhaustion and burnout?
What is causing you to run at breakneck speed and is driving you away from God instead of toward Him?
(20A) Question 2: What is the most radical change you could make that you know would help end the exhaustion and burnout so that you can help your church faithfully function?
Now, unless it involves putting yourself or others at serious risk or is truly unbiblical, have you ever considered that maybe that is what God wants you to do?
I am not saying that you or I need to give up some commitments only to make more commitments to the church. What Yanconelli is saying (and I think Jesus often says to us), is ‘Stop and slow down! You cannot hear me! I have something to say to you!”
If we are all so harried, how do we have time for God? How are we going to fully follow and faithfully function as a church if we are going fifteen different directions or are consumed with other things? How do we become a kingdom builder instead of merely being a follower?
This morning we are going to conclude with a time of prayer. There is not going to be any closing song or music being played. We will have only silence and the Holy Spirit.
You are free to use the altar or pray where you are. I will conclude with prayer and we will be dismissed then.
Let us listen for God’s voice…
Bulletin bloopers
www.angelfire.com/tx4/BulletinBloopers/
Augsburger quote is from his book, ‘Dissident Discipleship’
Yaconelli quote is from his book. ‘Messy Spirituality.’
Power Points for this sermon are available by e-mailing me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and asking for ‘042907slides’ Please note that all slides for a particular presentation may not be available.
